Refining the game and expanding the world

A Codex, randomly generated rivals and even a bespoke font – some important details have been explored this week in the SwapBots studio…

One player battle takes shape

Battle is the core of the SwapBots gameplay experience – and it’s coming together well. This week expert immersive tech developer Beppe Scavo has been ‘plumbing’ in the account login system and has an offline version of battle working. In this prototype the player is challenged by a randomly-generated Bot. Next up is some to refine the AI – right now the battle is a simple affair that needs to be more challenging and unpredictable.

Further work on the Hub and Arena

This is the bridge between the toy and the game, so it needs to feel anchored in the real world yet still express some of the colour and movement of the gameplay. To that end, our design-lead Mike Snowdon has been ‘baking’ light, textures and shadows to ‘ground’ the Hub into the real-world AR scene.

We’ve joked before that SwapBots has the world’s best lighting and shadows anyway. Why? Because AR centred around a physical object means that you are looking at actual light and shadow – it gets no more realistic than the real thing!

Like The Hub, the SwapBots Arena will be another place that players will be frequenting during the game and that too has undergoing a little finessing. This has included some very particular detailing – Mike has only gone and designed a font for use within the world of the SwapBots! The abstract shapes are inspired by the Runic alphabet – and for good reason. It is said that any new technology is indistinguishable from magic – and we firmly believe that augmented reality has magic-like qualities.

Putting theory into practice

Here in Liverpool we’re lucky to be surrounded by some incredible education establishments. Our studio is based in the ‘Knowledge Quarter’ – as this title implies, we can’t move without tripping up over multiple universities, colleges and schools.

We currently have Sam Medlock-Matthews here who is gaining some studio experience to go alongside his Graphic Design and Illustration degree gained at Liverpool John Moores University. He’s been working on the ‘Codex’ alongside Mike. Think of this as the glossary of the SwapBots world. Initially it consists of greyed-out Bots with each unlocked as you use and discover them. The Codex is also where other unlocked content can be found such as comic book-style cut-scenes and more.

Custom skins for backers

Finally, we’ve been using our internal design tool for making custom digital skins to make some treats for our ever-patient backers. This will include bespoke Bot skins based around the Kickstarter and IndieGoGo brand colours that can be used with pride in battle once SwapBots goes live!